Children experience much of their early learning through play and social interaction. As we grow up learning becomes more structured and adult learning is traditionally very formal. The use of games for adult education can be seen as childish and by this association be unsuitable for adult learners.

Is there any evidence that we should still use games as part of adult education and specifically in medical education?

Over the last four years Gloucestershire Academy have developed a growing number of games to help undergraduate medical students learn, ranging from simple card and board games to more complex technological games. This workshop will present an overview of this work and the evidence for the use of games in medical education. There will be an opportunity to play the games we have developed. From our experience, we will give ideas on how to structure games and avoid pitfalls in design to maximise learning. There will also be an opportunity to design your own game and trial it on other members of the workshop.

This session is being run by the Clinical Teaching Fellows at Gloucestershire Academy.